Monday, August 2, 2010

How Cool! Thanks!

Well, it seems I have been given a blog award! The Versatile Blogger Award. Chrystal from "My Morning Music" nominated me! Thanks Chrys! After being a big fan of your blog, I consider it quite the compliment and really appreciate the nod!

Apparently there are things I am required to do once I receive this honor:

1. Thank the award giver. 2. Share seven things about myself. 3. Nominate new award winners and let them know.

Took care of number one above. I will also be making Chrystal her favorite Indonesian Pork Roast and rice pilaf the next time she comes up, with much gratitude!

Seven things, huh? Isn't that some kind of Biblical perfection number or something?

1. I absolutely love music. It is my mood-altering drug of choice on a regular basis. I am a rocker from way back beginning with the Beatles (yes I sat in front of the black and white TV with my brother and watched them on Ed Sullivan), moving through to Def Leppard and Guns and Roses and including more modern groups Nickelback and Third Eye Blind. I love the folk music of the 60s and I am currently on a big James Taylor kick when I want to mellow out. I have been fortunate enough to have raised five very music savvy children who kept me in the loop and introduced me to bands like Depeche Mode, Erasure and the Cranberries (though my kids will tell you that "Dreams" and the yodeling at the end drove me nuts at first... hey, I was a frazzled mom of five...what can I say?).

2. I love doing things with my hands. I remember being really young in my room at home and doing a mosaic of the North Church and listening to Roy Orbison's Pretty Woman. I learned sewing in school (back in the day when it was required)and made most of my clothes through junior high and high school. My mom taught me to knit and to embroider. She and I both learned to crochet when I was in high school and my sister taught me to crosstitch. I am working on a piece right now of four little girls at the beach which reminded me of my four girls. I realized yesterday why I love doing it. It is like a jigsaw puzzle with thread. It is amazing to watch the colors and stitches unfold this beautiful picture. The same can be said for an afghan to knit or crochet or sewing a pretty dress for an adorable baby.

3. I really really really like being home. It restoreth my soul. I am a homebody when it is peaceful. When we were raising our kids, a lot of the time I wanted to get out because of the sheer noise factor! I am eternally grateful for the fact that I married a wandering man. He is as curious about seeing things as I am about reading about things curled up on my couch with a hot cup of coffee and my cat. If it wasn't for him, I would have ended up missing SO many things! Ireland, Austria, Hawaii, Kansas and best of all... Oklahoma!!!

4. I love to dance. And it is very important to me! So much so that I remember telling my friend, Laurie, "I am going to marry a guy who dances!" OK, so I didn't. But I did teach him a bit. He is as comfortable out on a dance floor as I am away from home! This really goes back to the love of music too. I can really be dreading going somewhere (do I detect a theme here?), even as simple as a short meeting, and if I snap on my little iPod shuffle with my music, I am smiling and boogeying all over that bathroom as I put my makeup on and do my hair. It is as if the music makes every single one of my cells sit up and dance! So my feet canNOT be still! I still miss my older girls being home and the fabulous dance parties they had because they let me be the crazy mom out there with them! That was so generous of them... did I thank you guys for that? I heard one time that Michael Jackson had a whole room that he got to go into every day and just dance for two hours solid. I was so envious!!

5. I love to sing but apparently can't hold a tune in a bucket. I sang to my babies when they were little and still sing to my grandbabies. It puts them to sleep! Hey, if I was that bad, wouldn't it make them cry instead of put them to sleep? But referencing #4, when I put my headphones on with my iPod, um, I sing with the music! And my dear husband, Rick, will come around the corner with this big grin on his face. He thinks I am nuts. And cute. But he says I can't sing based upon that. Oh, well, I just think of Julia Roberts in the tub in Pretty Woman (hey, again with the theme) singing along with Prince to "Kiss". She looked like she was having fun and for me that's what singing is all about. Especially ripping down the highway with Boston's More Than a Feeling blaring and singing at the top of my lungs!!! Nothing better than that, baby!!!

6. I love to read. I will never forget my little Chrystal making a new friend on the playground with "Hi, my name is Chrystal, I like to read, do you like to read?" How sweet is that? She never knew how much I admired her courage that day. I read before I went to kindergarten thanks to my mom who taught me phonetically. And I did the same for my kids too. Learning phonetically worked so well with my brainstyle. I love puzzles and each word just seems like a puzzle to me to be figured out (sounded out). I read for pleasure (fiction) when my girls give me a hard enough time and I allow myself the luxury. But mostly I love to read self-help books. My biggest puzzle is me. And though I know there are some in my circle who think I take myself a BIT too seriously, I have learned amazing coping tools and even became a life coach to share this info with others. AND I am still reading... the Bible is a never ending interesting puzzle that has a billion fascinating pieces that the more I read the more I see the bigger picture. Love that.

7. I love football. Now, I cannot even begin to compare my passion for football with my daughter, Chrystal and her husband, Jason. But when Rick and I first got married, it was I that wanted to watch the games on Sunday. He was more passive about it at the time. I have definitely brought him around and it didn't take much. My relationship with my dad was sketchy to say the least, but the one thing we did together (besides fishing) was watch football. I asked him all the questions and he answered. It was our bonding time. So because I understand football, it is a blast to watch. On Superbowl Sunday, it is me with the guys watching the game and hollering "Get 'em!" and the other wives are in the kitchen... oh well! When I was 30 I taught World History and English at a private school in Reseda, CA. I had high school age kids. I will never forget the look on one David Gobauty's face when I started talking about Danny White of the Dallas Cowboys, etc., etc. He didn't believe I really knew anything about football. Ha! Ha! Girls rule!!!!

Sooooo, that is my required 7. As to nominating another blogger and letting them know, I reserve the right to check out some more blogs before I make my choice!

1 comment:

Chrystal said...

Love it! Connie and I just got a bunch of stuff to make scarfs. We will see how I do - she is making one for Jason and I am making one for myself just in case mine is total crap!
Funny thing is Jason really didn't watch football when we first started dating & since I didn't have a TV neither did I. But when we got married and Jake came to stay with us he turned us into monsters! Miss him.